Naifuanchin.

Naifuanchin

It is very clear there is a lot going on here, as with everything, the framework needs to be set by exploring up from the feet, the hips, the arms, alignment.

Principles of opening and closing driven through the hips, the principles of fist formation in relation to direction, maybe key to some other rotational aspects of the hand/fist?

The thing is that is seems to flow naturally, the point I am discerning is drawing attention to see what is happening, what isn’t happening and, with principle in mind, to make corrections.

The strategies seem clear insofar as applying the principles and the Kata, as a form, is less restrictive and more instructive.

Where is the rhythm? The timing? The distancing? How does one thing feed and push the other (as though they were separate)?

Continuous, like the tide, opening/closing/opening, move, step, shuffle, step, back, and around.

Move in here with this Koshi, throw, move there with that Koshi, strike, strike/throw, throw/strike, fluid, no separation, no stop then go in clunky fashion.

You give me that and I will take this as well, just following the line.

Step or stomp? Step or kick? Step or sweep? This Koshi and what is presented, maybe a stomp. That Koshi and what is presented, maybe a kick. A sweep? It is all there implied, yet it isn’t.

What a brain teaser!

History of Lew Chew Fighting Arts PT 1.

History of Lew Chew Fighting Arts PT 1.

It has been fun conducting research into the history of Lew Chew (Ryukyu) for my own personal perspective on what I study.

There is so much romanticization of History and Founders within the Karate Community that they are placed almost on a pedestal and seen as perfect semi-God-like figures and not much is really known about these figures within the Karate Community, mainly because most do not look outside of Karate for resources.

Miyagi Chojun was very young when he ‘founded’ his Karate system yet there are some who treat him as though he had all the answers at that time and regard him as one of the ‘Old Masters.’

Perhaps he was? Maybe? But there were no ‘Old Masters’ of Karate.

In my research I came across the name of Yuchoku Higa who was a Shorin Ryu Karateka, ‘founder’ of the Kyudokan Kobayashi line, but had been a student of Chojun Miyagi as he was, if I am recalling correctly, a Nephew of Miyagi’s?

He was not a student of Goju Ryu as Miyagi taught him Ti, not Karate and he was also a student of Jinan Shinzato in Ti.

After the war Miyagi lost interest in teaching Ti, shifting solely to the focus of Kata and Karate, so Higa left to train with Choshin Chibana.

His school maintains the Miyagi Yobi Undo to this day despite being a Shorin Ryu line.

Ti being more principles based, applicable, it would make sense that Miyagi would move away from it after the war had taken almost everything from him.

I am not certain how accurate that is, but that is the picture it paints, which shows that Miyagi was a Tijigaya that stopped teaching Ti.

In addition to this there are the connections between the Jundokan, the Kyudokan, the Yakuza, and the Police along with a number of prejudices against foreigners.

I had always questioned the main history by asking why the Lew Chew people would teach their arts to those they view as occupiers and maintained that Karate was not what it appeared to be.

In a poor country where people are struggling there was opportunity in gainful employment by teaching Karate, case in point, Karate is still big business today.

It used to be much more hardcore back in the day, however, and with good reason; it’s’ association with gangsters.

The story of Naha Te, Shuri Te, and Tomari Te has ample evidence of being a fabrication as well.

An attempt to rid Toudi of its’ Chinese connections in order to make it seem more Japanese, after which it would be known as Karate with various ‘styles’ there under, though no such ‘styles’ exist as they all work on the same principles of movement to varying degrees.

Yes, Shorin based systems seem more based on weapon arts and are more pugilistic in nature while Systems in line with Goju Ryu seem more geared towards grappling and close-in tactics, a street based art of civil defense.

One could argue that this applies to both, and one could be correct.

In regards to the gangster aspect, both gangster and Policemen alike trained out of Karate Dojo and many that we hold up as Masters of Karate today were, indeed, opportunists with their hands in some very unsavory business aside from their Teaching and Karate was in the hands of some very unsavory Gangsters doing some very bad things.

Karate itself seems to be based only partially on Ti and mostly on Chinese arts meant for performance to the public.

As an aside there was also an Okinawan Independence movement, which exists today, and many Lew Chew officials and Nobles went into exile abroad.

They did not stay and submit, some were executed when they spoke out against the Japanese who enacted some very brutal policies in order to eradicate Lee Chew culture, including suppression of their language, rewriting their history, humiliating those that spoke the Lew Chew language, etc.

They even changed the name of the main island to Okinawa Prefecture in order to solidify their claim.

Today the ‘Karate’ that is taught has students wearing ‘Karate Gi’ in similar vein to Judo and the vocabulary is Japanese, not the Lew Chew language.

Not necessarily the ultimate show in subjugation of a culture, but certainly a subjugation of that Culture’s Warrior Spirit that once successfully held off Japanese incursion and gave the middle finger to the Khan by forcefully expelling Mongolian Officials.

I have traced the Art of Ti, Genten No Ti, which I study under Jan Dam of Denmark to the Nakazato Family of Nobles, Aji was their title I believe.

Related to the Lee Chew Royal Family with Ynagusuku (Nakazato) Choki once acting as regent for the King (Cho or Sho in names denotes relation to the Sho line as it could only be used by the Royal Family) and signer of the treaty with Commodore Perry on behalf of the Royal Government.

At least that is with whom the name Nakazato is associated in Lew Chew, a Palace Noble who would have known Ti by his very position as it was practiced by the Nobility and Warrior Class… Not the Farmers and Peasants as the mainstream history once posited.

They were too busy working to support the upper class people by way of taxes.

Lew Chew also had a warring period of three Kingdoms prior to all of this in which warlords, or Aji, built Castles and had skirmishes with one another until it was all brought together by King Sho Hashi at the behest of China, to whom they volunteered tribute.

History repeats itself as a few factions of Okinawan Yakuza would get into open skirmishes until the Yakuza from the mainland stepped in…. Ironically (or not) the Yamaguchi-gumi.

This may all be off base, but one can go check the resources available on their own to confirm it.

I had previously maintained that modern day Karate is purely Japanese with little to no connection to Okinawa history.

That is incorrect by way of semantics. It is Japanese with connection to the history of the Japanese created Okinawan Prefecture, but no real connection to the history of Lew Chew and very little connection to Ti.

Kata, as they are now called, were created based on the imported concept from China as everything Chinese was en vogue to the upper class.

Ti, in its’ purest form, did not have Kata, it had/has principles, mechanics, strategies, and tactics.

The modern notion of Kata in Karate, while based on a concept from China, has become solidified in a sort of Japanese static perspective… They cannot be changed because X. 

They are changed all the time, by the way, and really do not exist outside of performance to begin with.

In my view, based on my understanding, Naifuanchin is the first and only purely Lew Chewan Kata.

All others carry Chinese influence and some, like Sanchin, are completely Chinese in origin, altered for whatever reason as altering or changing was once a natural thing in Toudi… Not in Karate.

The Kata of Goju Ryu that most call ‘Kitty’ in my opinion were created by Miyagi Chojun and many are based on a combined influence of Naifuanchin Kata as well as influence of Chinese Arts (including Chinese Lion Dancing).

Naifuanchin was a Kata that Miyagi used to teach, then stopped, just as he stopped teaching Ti.

Many can even notice the blatant similarity between Naifuanchin and his Gekesai Kata, minus the Ti principles (as Naihanchi also lacks Ti principles in the mainstream today).

What of recent so-called ‘Masters’ and the myth of the wise and compassionate Karate Sensei who promotes Growth and Self Improvement?

Purely a modern creation. Toguchi Sensei himself was an alcoholic chain smoker, many were womanizers that frequented the infamous Naha Red-Light District, many of them ran those Brothels with Karateka muscle to back them up.

After the war there were very few left who knew any amount of Ti, those that did did not teach openly and certainly not to foreigners, still others ceased teaching it entirely.

Those we have today are mostly self promoted, some were students of certain well-known Karate ‘Masters’ who saw opportunity and broke off, even inventing entire lineages to further their brand for the sake of making money.

Maybe this is one origin of the Self-Help industry? 

That is not to say that genuine Teachers seeking to help others through Karate do not exist, but it is to point out that a Lotus grows from the mud.

It is to dispel the romanticism that surrounds Karate as some sort of ancient mystical art, it is not.

Battlefield tested? Maybe if you count how it was used by Gangsters in recent times, sure, that can count.

Some of the greatest things have come from the darkest of places and it is always a good idea to remember this.

To be better than those who came before has always been the stated goal, for some, they already are and they should hold their heads up because of that.

For others it is still a business racket with no real substance, which is fine, there is no crime against making money, but certainly it is a crime if some source of that income is illegal.

I am going to continue my research now. More to come.

The Ugly Truth

 Your brain is your greatest weapon, not the number of applications you learned against a wrist or lapel grab.

Technical memorization only goes so far and becomes exceedingly complex the further one goes.

In truth there are only a couple ‘techniques’ one really needs to know and these have endless applications that do not require memorization.

How to move you move your body to apply power is of most importance, falling into that, how your body lines up, and, still within that sphere, where you move… Footwork.

Do you see a target? Is it close to you? Destroy it.

What is a target? How about an elbow bending the wrong way? Forcing the knee to bend the wrong way? Punch to the liver? Strike to the throat? A thumb in the eyes? 

Most of what holds a person back is their own mind.

The rest is training incorrectly if their goals are actually meant to achieve useful, practical, and applicable skill.

If someone threatens my family, if someone threatens me, being the provider for my family (an indirect threat to my family) and I have no way to escape then I am going THROUGH them.

Style does not factor in, school, belts, etiquette, none of that matters in that moment.

I’ve been down that road… You know what works? Everything when it is well applied to a viable target with intent to injure/incapacitate.

I am not seeking pressure points, I am not seeking specific targets that are favored. Whatever target they give me is the unlucky target that gets destroyed.

I once had someone tell me they were training ‘with a more combative mindset’ now.

Yet what I saw was more of the same equation-type thinking, if they do X then I will do Y, and very little actual hands on training… A lot of talking.

Boxing Gyms have it somewhat right, people get in the ring and actually DO rather than talk about doing.

Ti has this aspect as well, as do many other schools, but the majority of the time is spent punching at air and listening to the Teacher talk about something that may or may not be related to punching said air at these Karate schools.

I don’t look down on that sort of thing, at least you are doing something with your life, but you want to keep that life for a while don’t you?

Sometimes you have to face the ugly truth, that the truth is, indeed, ugly.

Fear Factor

 Fear is a topic covered by some in great detail, yet seldom touched upon in training where it needs to be addressed.

How many techniques one knows is not going to do a lot of good if one is frozen to the floor and relieving their bladder or the contents of their stomach in the face of life and death.

The legs become heavy, somewhat numb, the mouth dry, vision blurry or tunneled, hearing distorted, sometimes, thoughts seemingly disjointed, self doubt, or none at all… Sometimes… Maybe one turns and runs away without even a single thought until they are wondering how they ended up where they ended up??

Fear that has not been honed to work as it should is a dangerous loose canon… To you.

Worse still, fear can overwhelm those with an arsenal of one hundred different techniques and ‘Bunkai’ at their disposal, thus defeating to purpose of… Well… Everything.

Fear is a tool, it helps you notice when something is off BEFORE something goes down.

An early warning system that tells you to get the hell out of dodge when you can, to bring your weapons online when you can’t, to be hyper alert, to be on guard.

Everyone has it, like a sixth sense that draws from queues around you, intuitively you know, but many don’t trust it, ignore it, or don’t know what to do with it at all.

Sometimes people are so ruled by social norms that they shove it aside so as not to appear rude, which can lead to some seriously bad outcomes.

What if you have to fight your way through someone to get away? What if, even then, you can’t get away without dishing out some of those seriously bad outcomes before they are fished out to you?

Are you afraid? Everyone is afraid, the people who say they aren’t are either liars or psychopaths.

What do you do when your hands get shaky? Your legs get heavy? Your breathing and heart beat become swift? You find it hard to focus? 

What do you do? Is there a Kata or Bunkai for any of this? Is there a technique you can learn to apply? 

Can you apply it under duress? Especially if those you love depend on you?

No pressure.

Goals

I have essentially given up on trying to write a book on Martial Arts in general and Karate specifically.

Perhaps it is my lack of skill in writing on the subject in an organized way that is also engaging. There is also nothing new under the sun.

Taken to writing Fiction, as I have since I was around seven years old, I find it is a better release for me, coupled with drawing, something else I have done since I was very little, although my writing is far more developed than my drawing.

The thing about both is that one can learn technical theory, one can learn about something within a specific genre, yet not be completely bound by it. The sky is the limit in many cases, one can flow in whatever way they want and naturally stick to the principle.

In my mind, writing is like painting pictures with words, drawing is flowing along interesting lines.

Ti is very much the same thing. Karate, as it is now taught, less so.

Maybe if we threw out everything we thought we knew, dispensed with the collection of techniques, ‘Bunkai,’ and the twenty seven plus Kata that we barely understand. Maybe then we could make some progress towards a more nature and, consequently, more effective understanding?

All a person really needs to know is how to move effectively and through which targets to strike that will yield the most effect… Injury. Strategy is born in the middle.

There is no ‘if they do X then I will respond with Y’ equation.

The Karate Ni Senti Nashi Bullshit Mindset will set you off at a disadvantage from the start of any sort of confrontation.

This should not take years of training either. Effective is effective and, for the purposes of being effective, must be effective from day one.

The idea that ‘something comes later’ is not really acceptable. Refinement might come later, but what if something happens now rather than later?

Would a standing Army utilize the methods of something that would take their Soldiers years to apply when they are already at the doorstep of war? Would they utilize those methods even when war is not an immediate threat?

What about Police Officers in a rough city? Would they hold back their trainees for seven years in order to be able to effectively apply their training? 

If the answer was ‘yes’ to any of these then I am afraid you, dear reader, have watched far too many Kung Fu movies.

Is it worth it to train for years? Definitely, especially if you enjoy it, all the better if it is applicable from day one.

I have a belt ranking, that doesn’t matter much to me. If achieving a black belt is your goal then more power to you, but if your goal is immediate ability, the black belt will not mean much.

A passing acknowledgement of refinement? Perhaps.

It doesn’t really matter in the long run, or even the short run, at least to me.

My focus is not on learning a syllabus to pass a test, I barely wear my Karate Gi unless I find myself on occasion to do so, which is rare.

Testing is a means of income in addition to private lessons and regular tuition, which is fine, Sensei’s gotta eat too, but it is nothing special other than the act of doing.

The achievement should already have happened, refinement is the reason for training.

These are all just my opinion, of course, my approach, my way… If these are not in line with yours then great, it means you are an individual capable of thinking for yourself.

The Cult has not yet destroyed your mind.